A Lil’ Positivity: Staten Island Man Undergoes Double Arm Transplant After Becoming First Soldier To Survive Losing All Four Limbs In Iraq

Soldier Has Double Arm Transplant To Replace Limbs Lost In Iraq

A soldier from Staten Island who lost all four of his limbs while fighting in the Iraq/Afghanistan war and then nearly lost his home during hurricane Sandy is finally getting to see a long over due light at the end of the tunnel. Doctors were recently able to restore two out of four of the 26-year-old war veteran’s limbs after he successfully underwent a double arm transplant.

The first soldier to survive after losing all four limbs in the Iraq war has received a double-arm transplant.

Brendan Marrocco had the operation on Dec. 18 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, his father said Monday. The 26-year-old Marrocco, who is from Staten Island, was injured by a roadside bomb in 2009.

“He was the first quad amputee to survive” from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and there have been four others since then, said Brendan Marrocco’s father, Alex Marrocco. “He was really excited to get new arms.

Marrocco expects to spend three to four months at Hopkins, then return to a military hospital to continue physical therapy, his father said. Before the operation, he had been living with his older brother in a handicapped-accessible home on Staten Island built with the help of several charities.

The home was heavily damaged by Sandy last fall.

Despite being in a lot of pain for some time after the operation, Marrocco showed a sense of humor, his father said. He had a hoarse voice from a tube in his throat during the long surgery, decided that he sounded like Al Pacino, and started doing movie lines.

A well deserved blessing for this young man who nearly sacrificed his life to defend our country……and managed to keep a positive attitude through it all.